Thy Bui’s time in Washington, D.C. was transformational. By participating in the UC Washington Center program (known as UCDC) in summer 2002, the Orange County, California, native had experiences that greatly influenced her life.
“Getting to meet people from different parts of the country and being in a professional workplace for the first time was all really valuable [for me] in terms of learning soft skills and learning how to be on my own,” Bui ’04 said.
Taking part in the program also influenced Bui’s career path. During her time in the nation’s capital, she interned in the city’s Office of the Attorney General and, through her work in the office and the relationships she built with its professional staff, realized she wanted to be a lawyer.
“[The internship] helped me understand that [a career in law] was a possibility, that I could pursue this,” Bui, now a partner with the law firm Maynard Nexsen, said. “I was dealing with actual attorneys. I was helping them with their work. I didn’t know any [attorneys] growing up, so now suddenly I had an expanded network where, if I had questions, I had people that I could talk to.”
Tuition and fees are the same for a quarter at UCDC as for a quarter at UCR, but students do need additional funds to cover various expenses, as Bui discovered during her time in the program.
“Flying [to Washington, D.C.] was a huge expense for me, and also paying for rent in an expensive city, the cost of living, and buying work clothes,” she said.
“Because of Thy's generosity, many UCR students on financial aid are able to fund their UCDC trips so they can expand their horizons outside of the classroom setting and learn about the inner workings of government in the nation's capital.”
When applying for the program, Bui knew of classmates who wouldn’t consider looking into UCDC because of those costs. Inspired by students like those classmates, Bui established the Thy B. Bui Scholarship for UCDC Endowed Fund in 2022 to help program participants.
"Because of Thy's generosity, many UCR students on financial aid are able to fund their UCDC trips so they can expand their horizons outside of the classroom setting and learn about the inner workings of government in the nation's capital," said Mark Long, dean of the School of Public Policy.
Two students in the School of Public Policy have received the scholarship since its inception, including Allison Wang ’25, who interned in the office of Rep. Mark Takano ’10 in summer 2024 and is now pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Southern California.
When reflecting on students who feel they cannot participate in programs like UCDC due to financial barriers, Bui says "for me to be able to remove that barrier for [students] so they can access these growth opportunities, I feel is important because the program was so impactful for me.”
